Broward school bus service crisis hurts budget cut efforts

A bus service crisis this fall torpedoed Broward schools' effort to slash the transportation department's budget.

Officials are now considering more ways to bring down costs, including a proposal to contract out some bus routes to a private company.

This year, the district plans to buy a GPS system designed to help the district identify busing problems, such as heavily congested routes, and to add administrators to focus on ways to operate more efficiently.

"It's disappointing that we haven't been able to attain more savings, but hopefully we have made some strategic changes that in the long term are going to pay off," school board member Katie Leach said.

The board plans to discuss the transportation department at a workshop scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Superintendent Robert Runcie, who couldn't be reached for comment on Monday, expected to cut $12 million from last year's $84 million budget, but a new report shows the savings will likely be closer to $2.8 million. The district's cost per mile is about $6.01, nearly twice as much as Palm Beach County ($3.33) and other large districts in the state.

Runcie had hoped to save money by cutting transportation jobs and implementing more efficient routes. But the plan backfired, as the school year started off with disastrous service, affecting thousands of children. There were reports of buses showing up hours late or not all and dropping kids off at the wrong locations.

The district responded by hurriedly hiring new drivers, while upping the overtime for existing ones.

"At the beginning of the school year, our focus shifted from cost containment to stabilization," said Jeff Moquin, an administrator overseeing the department.

Most of the problems were resolved by mid-October, although parents continue to complain of isolated incidents of poor service.

The hiring spree left the district with 42 more drivers than last year, despite having 5,000 fewer students riding on its buses, the new report shows. One factor may be that an extended day program at eight schools required the creation of 28 additional routes, Moquin said.

Overtime costs for the fall semester dropped only slightly from the same period a year ago, from $4.5 million to $4.4 million. Much of the overtime was concentrated during the first two months of school when the district was trying to fix the bus service problems. Moquin said he believes overtime costs have dropped since then and should continue to fall with the recent addition of a automated time keeping system that leaves less room for human error.

But Moquin said contractual requirements also lead to high overtime costs. Bus operators bid on routes by seniority, and higher paid employees choose routes that are longer and more likely have to have overtime. Drivers on the top end of the pay scale make $22 an hour, which ends up being $33 an hour for overtime paid at time and a half.

The Federation of Public Employees, which represents the district's bus drivers, isn't eager to change that.

"If a driver has 30 or 35 years behind the wheel for the benefit of children, that person deserves a good route," bus driver representative Linda Lewis said.

The district's Facilities Task Force is recommending a proposal even more dramatic than contract changes: outsourcing some routes. Andrew Ladanowski, chairman for the task force, said he'd like to see the district try one of the smaller terminals as a pilot project. Then the district could compare the costs. The task force plans to bring the proposal to the School Board Feb. 19.

Union officials worry about what might mean for jobs

"This a public entity. What's wrong with it now?" Lewis asked. "Why do we go to a private industry? This is taxpayer-supported. We should all be in this together."

She said the district's decision to offer numerous after-school and magnet programs to students throughout the county are a major reason for the high costs.

Ladanowski said it's more important to focus on the needs of children than bus drivers.

"We have generous compensation for the drivers, and that seems to be taking money away from the classroom," he said.